We are all born into this world with a “clean slate,” then life starts happening. We acquire knowledge. We acquire experience. We acquire wisdom.
We all look for meaning in life, searching constantly for an answer to the “why am I here?” question. We want to know what the point of it all is, and how we can make our time here on this earth amazingly relevant.
Our world is starting to shape as we go into our adolescents and teenage years. That’s when you’ll get your first glimpses of life's lessons: the girl who breaks your heart, getting cut from a team, or physically injuring yourself during an effort to prove yourself.
Then come true adulthood. That’s when the big life experiences start. A few things on that list include: divorce, the loss of someone close, financial ruin, a longtime physical ailment, losing a job, coming to the realization that you’re mortal, seeing something traumatic, etc.
But even if you’ve experienced some of these, you’ve also experienced the positives in life: finding true love, creating life, making good money, learning to take care of your body, getting a promotion, making the most out of life, giving back to the people around you, etc.
All my life, I have tried to understand the little stuff to become more knowledgeable
I always thought that knowledge and some tips would be enough for any sort of wisdom, but life isn't that easy.
Today, I have understood that true wisdom only comes with experiences. And our experiences do teach a lot; whether good or bad.
With everything experience you accumulate, both positive and negative, it shapes who you are.
Wisdom is nothing but the stored memories of our experiences and a wise person is the one who reflects on the meaning of those experiences and draw lessons from it.
There is a fun story that speaks to how we gain knowledge from our experiences and how that then becomes wisdom. It goes like this.
In a dense forest in India, a Tiger was smoking cigarette. He was enjoying his first smoke of the day as Rat was passing by that way.
The Rat noticed the Tiger smoking and went straight to him.
He started ” My dear Tiger brother, Why do you spoil your own health by smoking? Your life is very precious, please come with me, I will show you how beautiful this forest is”.
Hearing this, the Tiger put his cigarette down and stepped on it to extinguish the flame and started walking with the Rat.
As they walked through some distance, they saw an Elephant was placing HANS (Tobacco) under his lips.
The Rat went to the Elephant and asked, “My dear brother, you are a strong guy, you are very intelligent, why do you destroy your own life by using Tobacco? Come with me, I will show how awesome this forest is”. The Elephant threw away the HANS and started walking with them.
As the three were walking through the forest, they saw a Lion drinking alcohol.
The Rat went slowly to the Lion and said ” My Highness, you are the king of this forest. No one can match your strength. Why do you destroy yourself ? Please come with me my Majesty, I will show the beauty of our forest.”
Hearing this, the Lion gave one loud big slap on Rat’s cheeks.
Both the Tiger and Elephant were scared to death by this .
They asked the Lion ” Your Highness, why did you slap this messenger of peace?”.
Lion angrily replied, “This idiot is high on weed!
He said the same thing to me yesterday and made me wander throughout this forest all day.
Our mistakes, much like that of the Lion, make us alert to tackle situations if we come across such situation again.
It is a deeper understanding that enable you to choose right over wrong. It is the result of all your experience that comes with age. But age is not a hard and fast rule to judge the experience of a person. As more as we have to tackle different difficult situations we become more mature.
It takes many years of pains and hardships that teach us lessons. There are some turning points in everyone’s life that create distinction between an experienced and inexperienced person.
A wise person is that who not only drawn conclusion from his/her own experience but also from others too and learn lessons from it.
Our quest for wisdom often gets easier when we have people who share their wisdom with us thereby providing inspiration, guidance and teachable moments for us as we may encounter similar experiences along our life journeys.
They can be anyone. Your family, your friends, someone you idolize or even a stranger! It all comes down to your attitude, how much you are willing to learn and accept.
I realize now that some of my most difficult experiences and their valuable lessons are what got me to this beautiful place in my life. And I’m truly thankful for all of it!
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